Archives

Arizona: Beat Stephen F. Austin, as well they might have. Tuitama’s back in action and they’ve uncovered a decent tailback in Chris Jennings. I think that SC should be able to defend the run pretty well, so the extent to which Tuitama can work over the SC secondary will be important. As for the SC offense, if they can keep up the limited mistakes, get Washington and Moody some decent carries, and have Booty be even remotely successful with Smith and Jarrett, this should be one that SC can win.

Washington State: Squeaked by Baylor last weekend, which is not entirely encouraging. However, Stanford surely can’t be expected to pose too much of a threat.

Washington: What’s with the running game all of a sudden? That’s some old fashioned D. Beat Fresno State, who have lost whatever surprise factor they ever had and plainly are rebuilding. Now that UCLA has rediscovered how to play defense, this might be interesting in a technical sense rather than a fireworks sense.

Arizona State: Beating Colorado isn’t worth much these days, as it turns out. Cal should prove to be a sterner test.

Oregon State: Coming off a bye week much needed to recover from their shellacking in Boise. As demonstrated by Washington State, there’s nothing quite so invigorating as putting a hammering on Idaho.

Stanford: When Navy does a football recreation of the battle of Leyte Gulf (minus the kamikaze element) on a team breaking in their new stadium, you know trouble’s ahead. It’s hard to escape the sense that Stanford will lose to Wazoo en route to a truly awful season. Which the players will rue slightly 15 years from now in their offices on Sand Hill Road, at high-end law firms, etc.

Oregon: Well, bad calls and all, they still managed to make the most of the opportunity they were gifted against Oklahoma. A bye week for healing and staying out of the limelight might be well timed.

Cal: Beating Portland State doubtless helped their self-esteem.A banged up offensive line against ASU’s improving defensive line might make for a long game.

Notre Dame: Well. What’s to say about that pounding from Michigan except GO BLUE! Michigan State often challenges Notre Dame and this is a road game for the Domers… I’m not going to go out on a limb and suggest another shellacking; either way it should be close.

UCLA: After a bye week, it will be interesting to see if they can have both a good defensive and offensive game against Washington. As noted above Washington’s running game is much improved, so having Olson drop some fast points and playing Washington tough on run defense might not be a bad idea – hell, if I can work that out then presumably UCLA’s coaching staff has a better idea?